"Tom Dooley" is an old North Carolina folk song based on the 1866 murder of a woman named Laura Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina. It is best known today because of a hit version recorded in 1958 (see 1958 in music) by The Kingston Trio.

History

Impoverished Confederate veteran Tom Dula (Dooley), Laura Foster's lover and probable fiancé, was convicted of her murder and hanged in 1868. Foster was stabbed to death with a large knife; the brutality of the attack partly accounted for the widespread publicity the murder and subsequent trial received.

Dula had a second lover, Anne Melton. It was her comments that led to the discovery of Foster's body; Melton was acquitted in a separate trial based on his word. Many believed that Melton was the real killer and that Dula admitted guilt to protect her. This assumption was based on stories at the time that Melton was jealous of Dula's upcoming marriage to Foster, and that she had murdered Foster to eliminate her as a rival for Dula's affections. Thanks to the efforts of newspapers such as The New York Times, and to the fact that former North Carolina governor Zebulon Vance represented Dula pro bono, Dula's murder trial and subsequent hanging were given widespread national publicity for the time. Further adding to the Dula legend was the fact that a local poet, Thomas C. Land, wrote a popular song about Dula's tragedy after the hanging.

A man named "Grayson," mentioned in the song as pivotal in Dula's downfall, has sometimes been characterized as a romantic rival of Dula's or a vengeful sheriff who captured him and presided over his hanging. Some variant lyrics of the song portray Grayson in that light, and the spoken introduction to the Kingston Trio version did the same. Col. James Grayson was actually a Tennessee politician who had hired Dula on his farm when the young man fled North Carolina under suspicion and was using a false name. Grayson did help North Carolinians capture Dula and was personally involved in returning him to North Carolina, but otherwise played no role in the case.

Dula was tried in Statesville, because it was believed he could not get a fair trial in Wilkes County. He was given a new trial on appeal but he was again convicted, and hanged on May 1, 1868. His alleged accomplice, Jack Keaton, was set free. On the gallows, Dula reportedly stated, "Gentlemen, do you see this hand? I didn't harm a hair on the girl's head."

Dula's last name was pronounced "Dooley," leading to some confusion in spelling over the years. (The pronunciation of a final "a" like "y" is an old feature in Appalachian speech, as in the term "Grand Ole Opry").

The doleful ballad was probably first sung shortly after the execution and is still commonly sung in North Carolina. The song was selected as one of the Songs of the Century.

In the documentary Appalachian Journey (1991), Alan Lomax describes Frank Proffitt as the "original source" for the song. It is unclear exactly what Lomax means by this but, since it seems that the song predates Frank Proffitt's early version, it is likely that Lomax means that Proffitt's version is the one that has become most well known to us because the Kingston Trio derived their interpretation from Proffitt's. Certainly, there is an earlier known recording by Grayson and Whitter made in 1929, approximately ten years before Proffitt cut his own recording of the song.

Recordings

Several notable recordings have been made:

• Grayson and Whitter, Victor, 1929. The first recorded version by a group well known at the time.
• Frank Warner, Elektra, 1952. Warner, a folklorist, unaware of the 1929 recording, in 1940 took down the song from Frank Proffitt and passed it to Alan Lomax who published it in Folk Song: USA.
• The Kingston Trio, Capitol, 1958. This recording sold in excess of six million copies, reaching #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and is often credited with starting the "folk boom" of the late 1950s and 1960s. It only had three verses (and the chorus four times).
• Lonnie Donegan, also 1958. This version charted in the United Kingdom simultaneously with the Kingston Trio's. Its uptempo skiffle style was a contrast to the U.S. version's slower arrangement.
• Doc Watson, Vanguard Records, 1964. This version considerably extended the scope of the song.
• Rob Ickes recorded a version on his album "Hard Times" in 1997 as a Bluegrass-song.
• Macabre Minstrels recorded a song about Dooley on their 2002 EP Macabre Minstrels: Morbid Campfire Songs. The Minstrels are a side project of death metal band Macabre who have released several albums, often themed around serial killers and murders of notoriety.

Parodies

Tom Dooley prompted a number of parodies, either as part of other songs (Ella Fitzgerald drops an altered line from the song into a recording of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) or as entire songs, including one called Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley, Your Tie's Caught In Your Zipper by the Incredible Bongo Band in 1972.

The song and legend were parodied by a one-record novelty act called Waldo, Dudley and Dora on a 45 rpm Grayson Goofed, issued as Awful Records release #PU-1. Verses sung to the Tom Dooley melody alternate with mini-skits, as "John" Grayson's public reputation erodes from "a fine man" to "a stoolie" (i.e., stool pigeon) to "a gink".

The song was often parodied by the Smothers Brothers as Tom Crudely.

In Episode #702 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Crow T. Robot, motivated by one actor's resemblance to Thomas Dewey, sang a version beginning "Hang down your head, Tom Dewey."

Movie

The Kingston Trio hit inspired a quickie feature film, The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959), starring actor Michael Landon. The film was essentially a Western set just after the Civil War. Despite the title, it was not about any traditional Tom Dula legends or about the facts of the actual case, but was a fictional treatment obviously tailored to fit the lyrics of the song.

References

• Lomax, Alan, Editor, (1947). Folk Song: U.S.A. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce. (Also printed under the title Best Loved American Folk Songs).
• West, John Foster (1993). "Lift Up Your Head, Tom Dooley". Asheboro, N.C., Down Home Press.
• Rise Up Singing page 104, for copyright data.

External links

• Official Website of Tom Dooley
• Website on origins of the song and the Kingston Trio's success with it
• The Legend of Tom Dula
• Tom Dooley: a Wilkes County Legend, a Play
• Tom Dula's story on Wilkes Chamber of Commerce website